@wolfiesma, @mrutter: regarding the extreme dryness you’re seeing in this deciduous forest (I think botanists describe it as “Sudanese”), the answer is mixed. we traveled here during the height of the dry season (it’s really hard to get out to this very remote place during rainy season, roads are mud, hazardous), so part of what you’re seeing can be chalked up to seasonal weather cycles.

But deforestation is a huge, huge problem in Benin (and throughout West Africa). Land is deforested when populations are displaced from nearby war and civil conflict; land is deforested due to urbanization and mining; land is deforested when farmers run out of land and chop down forests.

Local folks we communicated with indicated that the dry seasons in Benin are now significantly longer and more harsh, and that as water cycles are disrupted and rivers go dry, this causes disruption in the lives of subsistence populations — and the animals and birds.

One thing that didn’t make it into this episode was footage I shot of the forests literally burning. I saw large areas that were blackened or ash, and asked our paid guide/driver/translator what was up. He said the burns were manmade, to prevent larger fires from destroying villages. But he indicated that this practice was a recently expanded one to accommodate for increasingly hotter, dryer conditions and a lot more dead and dying trees.

Climate change is real. It’s something the local people there talk about, Not because they have access to “biased liberal media,” as the denialists would have us believe — they do not. They are aware of it because they’re observing it and being forced to live with the consequences.

]]>By: mr.skeletonhttp://boingboing.net/2008/10/02/bbtv-world-elephantb.html#comment-300441
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-300441Great footage, Xeni. I pine to go to Africa one of these days.
]]>By: Tom Halehttp://boingboing.net/2008/10/02/bbtv-world-elephantb.html#comment-298930
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000#comment-298930Xeni, You actually went to Africa and helped film this? Amazing! That must have been pretty scary being so close to a herd of elephants. Beautiful video. It’s really sad to see Africa’s forests and jungles getting smaller and smaller each day. I’m glad you focused on the beauty that can still exist in an area despite the environmental damage.

It’s incredible how wildlife is able to adapt to an area after man has taken over their natural territory. Here where I live in Tennessee’s most populated city, it’s not uncommon to see packs of wild coyote in the outskirts of town, running from one copse to another. The raccoons have adapted so well that their population has actually grown in areas as long as there is a little bit of forest for them to hide in. There are still plenty of deer living in the patches of woods between neighborhoods here in the rural area I live in. I’d hate to live in a huge city where the wild animal population has all been wiped out.

I saw on your website that you contribute to NPR. I’ll have to listen for you, as I usually listen while on my way to work.

Heh, I shot the footage you see in this episode, yes. Some was recorded on a small Sony camcorder, and some was just on a little Canon point-n-click Elph (size of an Altoids tin). We like to try and do ambitious things with simple tools around here. You don’t have to have a giant crew of professional videographers, sound guys, and great equipment to tell a simple story in your own voice.